mechagalaxyfandomcom-20200214-history
Drochah oh-Thyeghr
Drochah oh-Thyehgr is the last of the Forerunners, and the Big Bad of Mecha Galaxy. It is currently unclear whether all the Forerunners shared Drochah's belligerent egotism. The Time-Traveler Apparently the Forerunners could use Gateways to move through both time and space. Drochah's place in Forerunner society is unknown, but whatever it was, it gave him unlimited access to time-travel. He was especially interested in Earth's Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, and modeled several models of special Mecha -- the so-called "dino-mechs" -- on the dominant animal life of that time. Oddly enough, Drocha would later refer to "the dinosaurs that once roamed these planets", implying that either he or another Forerunner transplanted dinosaurs from Earth to other worlds in the Milky Way. After adapting to extraterrestrial environments for millions of years, these transplants might have evolved into the many giant reptiles now found across the galaxy, such as the "snavurms" met by the player in Mission 5. It is even possible these dinosaurs evolved into the Forerunners themselves, in a Stable Time Loop scenario. To avoid whatever caused the end of Forerunner civilization, Drochah traveled forward in time, searching for the next species capable of using niodes and building Mecha. This was, of course, the human species. Opening Moves Drochah's first order of business was to test humanity's defenses. Thousands of beast-mechs had been stored away by the Forerunners, and though Drochah had no pilots to guide them, he did have "Serpentarius Alpha": a three-headed monstrosity with intelligence on par with any human being. Alpha drove the beast-mechs forward, through human Gateways and deep into human territory. It took the combined efforts of the most powerful Clans to smash through Alpha's picket squadrons and slay the beast; the remaining beast-mechs were soon tamed and put into human service. Some pilots -- Drake Novum among them -- observed that Alpha tended to swallow examples of advanced human technology, especially technology related to Mecha. The significance of this behavior was lost at the time, but it is now clear that either Alpha or Drochah was analyzing these "meals", and learning how to build human-style Mecha of their own. While a Mecha's bioptics are not truly living tissues, they share enough simliarities that they can be infected by specialized pathogens. Depending on the type of pathogen, this will either degrade or improve the Mecha's combat performance; cosmetic changes are also common, typically in the form of spike- or horn-like growths that seem to be the bioptic equivalent of galls. Most disturbingly, pilots rigged to infected Mecha sometimes experience personality changes. Drochah experimented with his newly-built human Mecha, and created what he considered the perfect pathogen. At the same time, he genetically engineered a new species to pilot his infected Mecha: the "Gorak Swarm", named for its leader, Gorak. Drochah clearly considered the Gorak Swarm to be expendable assets, a means of spreading his pathogen through salvaged bioptics. By 3295, the entire species had been exterminated. But infected Mecha -- and insane human pilots, sympathetic to Drochah's cause -- have become more and more common since then. The Yomi Gambit At least in the 3200s, Drochah's base was located in "the Yomi Reefs", the remnants of a planetary system orbiting a quark star. The first examples of Ignis and Aspis dino-mechs were found on Yomi Prime in the summer of 3286 -- that is, July 2014 as experienced by players -- and pilots deployed there began reporting strange phenomena, such as this intercepted transmission. (Drochah's statements are highlighted in white, for the reader's convenience.) Note that while "Spirit 2-4" believes Drochah is communicating telepathically, psychic phenomena are not susceptible to being recorded on standard-issue equipment. Most likely, Drochah's dino-mech could hack into Spirit's neural rig, creating the illusion of telepathic contact. "Command" seems unaware of Drochah, but this could be the result of the telecom malfunction alluded to within the transmission. It was in the Yomi Reefs that Drochah first revealed himself to the Clans, in what is now known as "the First Drochah Raid". In the game's timeline, the raid took place in 3290, corresponding to November 2014 in real life. Once again, Drochah had assembled several thousand Mecha, including infected mechs, dino-mechs, standard Forerunner mechs, and several Serpentarius-class units similar to the vanquished Alpha. Most of the Clans at that time joined together against this threat, and Drochah was driven out of the known galaxy in a matter of days. Several dino-mechs were retrieved from Drochah's camp in Yomi Prime, including the first Regis-class Mecha. The League of Ages Humanity believed that Drochah had been killed, but for obvious reasons, it is almost impossible to kill a time-traveler. He decided to "fight fire with fire", sifting through human history to locate its most brutal warriors, and rescuing them at the moment of their death. Taken to his new base -- the location of which was never discovered -- these men were rejuvenated with Forerunner technology and drafted into a new Mecha army, which Drochah called "the League of Ages". Beginning in 3292 (January 2015), pilots began encountering League patrols. Xerxes and Bismarck known to have joined the League; a native Latin-speaker (presumed to be one of the Caesars) and a figure calling himself "the Flail of God" (a title assumed by Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, and Tamerlane) were also members. Immediately upon learning that Drochah had survived, the Clans gathered once again, for "the Second Drochah Raid". Drochah ordered a preemptive attack, but this time the Clans were familiar with his tactics; they had also been greatly strengthened with materiel from Yomi. The League was swiftly defeated: its few survivors scattered across the galaxy, intent on carving out their own petty kingdoms. Drochah also survived, although his whereabouts are unknown. Category:Pilots Category:Lore